Archive for June 29th, 2013

Business leaders and economists on Friday sharply reacted to the US decision to suspend duty-free trade privileges for Bangladesh under the Generalised System of Preferences, terming it a political decision. They said that the US was using the GSP facilities as a leverage to implement its political agenda. The GSP covers only $34.7 million which is less than 1 per […]

Incessant rains on Friday battered public life amid prediction by the met office that the country may experience more rainfall in the next couple of days. Mohammad Sanual Haque, a weather forecaster, told New Age that due to active monsoon, light to moderate and heavy to very heavy rainfalls are likely to occur in most places in the next couple […]

Islami Chhatra Shibir on Friday threatened to call a countrywide dawn-to-dusk general strike for Sunday if its president Delwar Hossain and other leaders and activists were not released by today. A statement signed by the Jamaat-e-Islami-backed student organisation acting press secretary Mizanur Rahman also called for countrywide demonstrations for today pressing for their demands. Their demands also include investigation into […]

Dhaka termed the US suspension of Generalised System of Preferences for Bangladesh an ‘unfortunate development’, saying that a section of people both in Bangladesh and in USA had long been campaigning to this effect. But US president Obama in a message to the Congress on Thursday said, ‘I have determined that it is appropriate to suspend Bangladesh’s designation as a […]

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party has blamed the government for the US suspension of Generalised System of Preferences programme for Bangladesh’s garment products. BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Friday said suspension of GSP facility for Bangladeshi apparel products by America is the latest failure of the government. Addressing a gathering, he said the government ‘did not take […]

Seven months have passed since a deadly fire at Tazreen Fashions in Ashulia killed 112 people in November last year, but Criminal Investigation Department is yet to complete the investigation into a criminal case filed after the blaze. Investigators have so far arrested the factory owner among 12 people in the case. ‘Our investigation is yet to be completed…We cannot […]

Rajshahi central jail authority on Thursday night shifted United Liberation Front of Assam leader Anup Chetia to Kashimpur central jail. Rajshahi senior jail superintendent Ismail Hossain on Friday told New Age that Anup Chetia was now in the high security jail 4 at Kashimpur. Anup Chetia’s appeal for repatriation to India has been kept pending with the ministry of home […]

Several top leaders of the country’s two rival political camps campaigned in favour of their respective mayoral candidates in the Gazipur civic polls all day on Friday braving rough weather. Though the electoral law defines city corporation polls as non-partisan elections, a dozen of top leaders from both ruling Awami League and opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party, dividing into several groups, […]

Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus on Friday said that Grameen Bank was an institution of the people and they would protect it at any cost. He said that the people would foil any attempts to destroy the Grameen Bank, acclaimed worldwide as a pioneer in micro-credit programmes for poor people. ‘It is a pro-people bank and so the people of the […]

Outside the hospital where Nelson Mandela fights the latest in a lifetime of struggles, his compatriots sing, remember and say goodbye to the father of their nation. Young and old, black and white, the residents of this imperfect Rainbow Nation witness a moment tinged with sadness, but replete with a sense of history. Many well wishers are content to snap […]

Non-government teachers’ registration certificates will remain valid for lifetime instead of five years. The education ministry issued a gazette notification extending the period of the validity of the certificates to lifetime on June 13. Nearly one lakh people holding the registration certificates would be benefited by the decision, education ministry officials said. The Non-Government Teachers’ Registration and Certification Authority Act […]

Indian Border Security Force picked up a Bangladeshi young man on Kushkhali frontier in Satkhira sadar upazila early Friday. The victim Hasan Ali, 35, is a cowboy and son of Ashraf Ali of Tengra village in the sadar upazila. Border Guard Bangladesh sources said BSF members from Khalisha camp of Uttar 24 Pargana in India picked up Hasan Ali along […]

A government official in Khagrachari on Friday morning succumbed to the injuries he had sustained on June 17 when an executive magistrate hit him by a car while learning driving. The victim, Purnadhar Chakma, 50, an auditor at Khagrachari district accounts office, succumbed to the injuries at a clinic in the district town on Friday morning. Witnesses said that district […]

The information minister, Hasanul Huq Inu, on Friday accused the opposition leader and BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia of conducting a hectic lobbying for the suspension of Generalised System of Preferences for Bangladeshi garment products in the USA market. ‘Begum Zia wrote to the USA administration for cancellation of GSP . . . It’s really a bad news for country’s garment […]

The state-run Petrobangla on Tuesday floated re-tender for six shallow sea blocks for which no international companies submitted bids during the first phase of tender between December 18, 2012 and April 1 this year. The conditions for bids remained the same, officials said. Interested IOCs will have to submit bids under the Model Production Sharing Contract 2012 for the six […]

The trial of the cases filed in connection with the bloody August 21 grenade attacks in 2004 is unlikely to be completed during the tenure of the Awami League-led government. The prosecution said it wanted to complete the trials in a fair manner as much as possible. As of the day, depositions of only 68 out of 491 prosecution witnesses […]

The Indian government has cancelled the licences of 15 TV channels and suspended those of seven others for failing to meet licensing conditions, media reports say. India’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting took the step, reported the Times of India. The ministry also slapped notices on 38 channels for making changes in their board of directors and shareholding pattern without […]

The bodies of two of the four people who went missing when a speedboat capsized in the River Padma in Munshiganj district on Monday have been recovered. The decomposed body of footwear trader Mosharraf Hossain was recovered from Kurerchar in Naria upazila of Shariatpur on Friday morning while that of cosmetic trader Ananda Das of Shibchar was recovered from the […]

Civic group leaders on Friday called to question the government’s sincerity in resolving land disputes in Chittagong Hill Tracts. They raised the question at a press briefing jointly organised by Bangladesh Adibasi Forum, Sampriti Mancha and Janaudyog at Dhaka Reporters’ Unity in the capital. Reading out a written statement, Sampriti Mancha member secretary Sourav Sikder said that the cabinet on […]

ABM Rashedul Hassan has joined Exim Bank Agricultural University, Bangladesh as its treasurer recently. Before his new assignment, he was the treasurer of Northern University, Atish Dipankar University of Science and Technology and also worked as a part-time faculty at Jahangirnagar University and Stamford University. He worked as the director of Privatisation Commission and chief of the labour wing of […]